Broncography: TE Dan Gronkowski

Doc BearSep 29, 2010 4:00 PM

The loss of TE Marquez Branson this preseason to a knee injury was a nasty surprise; he had been showing signs of having a knack for this game. But that’s why TE Dan Gronkowski was a potentially good acquisition from Detroit (if he plays like he was ranked - he was another guy who was rated substantially higher but fell in the draft). We’ll need someone who can both block and catch, and who can do both nearly equally. In theory, that’s what we got. So, why was Gronkowski one player away from being Mr. Irrelevant in the 2009 NFL Draft?

Two reasons, really. Look at the career of undrafted CFA Antonio Gates as an example. Clearly, TEs are often the last players to be considered. Gronkowski may not be another Antonio Gates - I’d be surprised if he was - but he could be a good fit, and an effective player for the Broncos, who need a guy who will come in and work hard. Branson was showing signs of being such a player, but his injury has put a temporary halt to that. The second reason? Let’s go back to Dan’s beginnings and see what we can find.

Upbringing

Starting at the very beginning, he was born to Gordon and Dianne Gronkowski, in Amherst, NY in January of 1985. His family had a long lineage of sports activities - Gordon was an offensive guard for Syracuse, and Dan’s great-grandfather was a member of the United States cycling team in the Paris Olympics of 1924. Dan’s siblings were also sports enthusiasts (brothers Chris and Rob are also in the NFL currently), and Dan loved sports of all kinds as he was growing up. While football and baseball were his main sports at Williamsville North High School (lettering in both for all four years), he lettered in basketball for 3 years, and hockey for one.

In football, he was a wide receiver during his first two years of high school and then moved to quarterback. His sophomore season brought him a school record with 539 yards receiving. He moved to QB during his junior and senior years, and set new records his senior year, in 2003. During that season, he was able to complete 122 of 207 passes for 1,407 yards and 16 touchdowns. All of those stats were school records. He was named the league’s offensive Most Valuable Player as well. Not surprisingly, he was recruited by Maryland, Arizona, Syracuse and Purdue. Gronkowski decided that Maryland was the best fit for him.

College

As is common, he redshirted his freshman year. In 2006, he only caught two passes, but he did win an award as having the team’s highest GPA. That was no surprise - by the time he graduated, Dan had finished a degree in marketing and was working on his MBA when he was drafted. He was also a Rhodes Scholar nominee. In the area of intellect, Coach McDaniels will be very happy with this young man.

Already regarded as one of college football’s premier blockers, the Terrapin Council team leader was never really a focal point of the team’s aerial attack during his first three seasons, but that all changed during his final campaign. With head coach Ralph Friedgen turning over the offense to coordinator James Franklin, the new West Coast offensive system saw Gronkowski emerge as a quality receiver. With Franklin returning to run the offense, Gronkowski saw plenty of action as the safety-valve target for the Terps. “I think having a new offensive coordinator has really added a new excitement to our program,” Friedgen said. “I like our staff. They relate to the kids well and I think the kids are having more fun.” Franklin was the offensive coordinator at Kansas State the last two years after spending one season with the Green Bay Packers.

He played in all 13 games in 2008 and started in 12 of them. Over that year, He caught 29 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns, including one matching his career-long 25-yard reception in 2005. He also saw some action on special teams and returned two kicks for eight and four yards. He was named an honorable mention All-ACC player. If you see that a TE had 40 receptions in 4 years, it doesn’t invite excitement. When 29 of them are in a single year, the player is an honorable mention All-ACC, leads the team in GPA, blocks like a machine and is greatly affected by the head coach turning the offense over to a West Coast Offense which gives him a chance to start receiving, he might become more interesting. Then you add that the player boasted the second-highest strength index on the team in the spring of 2008. In fact, i’ll let NFL.com tell you the rest.

Gronkowski’s blocking prowess is the byproduct of his incredible strength. The former prep quarterback registered the second-highest strength index on the team in spring 2008 testing. He also boasts a career-best squat of 635 pounds, the second-best figure by a Maryland tight end, topped only by the 685-pound lift from Vernon Davis (49ers). In each of his last four offseasons at Maryland, the tight end received Iron Terp honors, a recognition for his outstanding performances in the training room.

Draft

I found a nice little read over on Pride of Detroit. They were kind enough to list some draft reporting on Dan:

Best trait per Scouts Inc.:

Possesses soft, reliable hands. Shows good concentration in traffic but lacks the body control to make acrobatic catches.

SI.com:

POSITIVES: Nice-sized tight end prospect who plays much faster than his forty time. Quickly gets off the snap into routes, displays a burst of speed, and extends his hands to make the reception away from his frame. Gets vertical and adjusts in midair to come down with the difficult catch. Uses his frame to shield away opponents and protect the pass. Smooth moving around the field, and shows a good degree of quickness in his all-around game. Breaks down well, and plays with good knee bend. Solid strength at the point, and removes linebackers from the action.

NEGATIVES: Inconsistent hands and does not show the ability to pluck the fastball from the air. Lacks blocking balance and does not finish blocks.

What I really find interesting, and perhaps enlightening with regard to his low pick in the draft, is that I found a considerable amount of contradiction in both his positives and negatives from different draft sites. One has him as a lumbering player who can’t run a route and is slow off the line. SI.com’s description of his receiving skills are exact opposites to those other descriptions.

His blocking? Same issue in reverse. Some reports extol his blocking ability, power and even technique. SI.com feels that he lacks blocking balance and doesn’t finish blocks. I’ve touched on this more than once, but what often happens is that different scouts see different games, and some of them aren’t that careful about double-checking other film to be sure of being right. Other times, something from his freshman (redshirt freshman) season is written on his scouting report, and in that game, it was true. But times change, players do (usually) develop, and yet those reports are often not updated. Who then, to believe?

Believe the tape. I don’t have a lot of it, and I don’t put any faith in highlight reels, so I’m referring to someone else looking at that tape - someone who is paid to scout. I put a little more faith in Brian Xanders’ people, who are responsible for triple checking these sorts of things before making a trade. Everyone makes mistakes, and Denver’s group has definitely made a few, but they still know a lot more about the player than I. In this case, Detroit didn’t need him any longer, Denver might well have been ready to cut A. Smith loose (A couple of other fans and I were confabulated at the fact that he may have had his best game as a Bronco during his last (preseason, granted, but still) game as a Bronco), so neither team really could win or lose this one unless one of the two players has a late burst of ‘getting it’ and becomes a top player at their position.

In terms of blocking, this is very much what was said about Richard Quinn when he was drafted (without all the arguments about the various thoughts on trading two 3rd-round picks for a 2nd and a 4th). So, if Gronkowski is a player who has excellent blocking prowess, if he has incredible strength, lives in the weight room and already has his masters (meaning that he passes the McDaniels intellect test, something that Quinn hasn’t managed to do so far) and managed to quickly make the change over to a receiving role as well as a blocking responsibility, why did he last until the late 7th round? Part of it was nothing more than the vagaries of the draft - he lasted until pick 255, but he was rated for the 5th round, the 6th at the latest.

Secondly - for some reason, when the draft is going on, people don’t seem to care much about blocking TEs. About 2-3 months later, teams are looking for them, sometimes desperately. It happened in 2009, it’s happened many times before, and it will happen again. But Gronkowski isn’t a Richard Quinn at all - he received 29 passes for 287 yards as a senior, the first year he’d been asked to receive as well as block. He had no trouble making the change, but if you only look at his full ‘college production’, he had 40 receptions in 4 years, which is not exciting in a league where the theory is that a receiving TE is the wave of the future. However, the fact that he set a high school record for receiving suggests that this probably won’t be entirely new or difficult for him.

The fact that the blocking TE is often the need of the present isn’t talked about as much as I think that it should be. Last year was a good example - teams were disparaged for using upper-middle round picks for ‘blocking’ TEs. Then, by the middle of the season, those teams that weren’t interested were trying to find a decent blocking TE. It’s not fancy. It’s not glamorous, but if you don’t have a blocking TE when you’re in a 4th-and-short or red-zone situation, you’re suddenly exposed. Is there a Broncos fan out there who wouldn’t have loved to see a solid blocking-TE performance at any number of key points in the season in 2009?

NFL

So, to be clear - as I noted above, there are two reasons that Dan Gronkowski seems like a good bargain for Denver. The first is that TEs are frequently rated lower than some other player categories. Detroit took him in the 2009 Draft, waived him and placed him on the practice squad, and activated him December 1, 2009 when starter Brandon Pettigrew went down with a knee injury. He was an extra body for a team like Detroit who doesn’t use the TEs a great deal (other than Pettigrew) and after 2010 training camp, Gronkowski was traded along with a sixth-rounder in 2011 for CB Alphonso Smith, who had been a disappointment in Denver, along with a seventh-rounder in 2011.

Gronkowski wasn’t a good ‘fit’ in Detroit, who took receiving TE Tony Scheffler from Denver in the offseason, and already had taken Pettigrew as a first-rounder in 2009. However - different teams see different players in terms of what they want to accomplish, and whether a player makes the team or not often has little to do with their skillset. Gronkowski had nothing but confidence following his 2010 training camp, whichever way it went.

“The way I played this preseason, I have really good film, and I’m going to be playing somewhere,” Gronkowski said.

Dan played well in the Jacksonville game, even though he saw only limited action, generally as a blocker. His strength and technique were immediately obvious - his blocking was very good. He was only targeted once, and made the catch for a 2-yard gain. Considering that he was barely through the playbook once before taking the field, there’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s another reason why Gronkowski is a good pickup for the Broncos. When Spencer Larsen went down during the Indy game, Gronkowski stepped in and played fullback for Denver. In fact, that was one of the things that Denver brought him in for. Andrew Mason over at MaxDenver put it this way:

“We put a lot of pressure on him to learn multiple spots,” Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said.”He had to play his role; he had to know Graham’s role; he had to know Larsen’s role — and be able to function in any or all of them.”

Added Gronkowski: “It was a lot of studying and working with the coaches, but that’s what they brought me here to do. I consider myself a fairly smart guy and I’m going to learn the stuff, and if they need me, I’m going to jump in.”

But natural intelligence doesn’t serve as a short cut for good studying, which is why Gronkowski said he found himself still at the Broncos’ facility into the evening hours last week, studying tape and reviewing his assignments. After completing his lengthy workday, he’d have barely 90 minutes to himself before falling asleep and arising early the next morning to start over again.

The intellect of a Rhodes Scholar with a tough-minded work ethic was just the thing that Denver needed. Richard Quinn wasn’t active, Larsen went down, and Gronkowski’s role grew. He was ready for it. And for a newcomer to fullback, he impressed his coach. “He filled in well in terms of knowing what to do. He was physical in there,” McDaniels said. “I don’t think he had any big issues in the running game or protections.”

Given his physical strength, intellect, leadership skills, his joy of spending time in the weight room, and the reality that the Broncos very much need a two-way TE, as they said in Casablanca; this could be the start of a beautiful friendship. Welcome to Denver, Dan. I hope that your stay here is a very productive one.

Learn to laugh at yourself. You will be ceaselessly amused. - Sri Gary Olsen

You can reach Doc at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or follow him on Twitter @alloverfatman

I&#8217d like to see Gronkowski got used in as many ways as he can handle. It&#8217s probably worth noting that he hasn&#8217t been around long enough to have more than the blocking TE formations and the FB position well-covered, but I agree with you in terms of the direction that this could go in - each time you sell another option to the defense, you&#8217ve made their job that much harder. Good point, my friend.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2010-10-02 22:09:19

Great job Doc!

I think McD and Orton need to get this kids feet wet, because on one particular passing play with the ball going to the left side to Royal, Gronk was already out in front setting up to block for Eddie. teams might disregard him as a down field threat if he isn&#8217t used but only to block. Get him a pass down field and not a screen so teams will have something to think about. I believe he will be a keeper when he develops and that may be sooner than expected.

Posted by bfree2bronc on 2010-10-02 20:53:09

Re: &#8220liked pickup&#8221

I noticed Gronkowski in 2009 and evaluated his potential for us. BTW - the young women at the combine went gaga over his tarzan build and hair.

I&#8217ve previously written about the changing prototype for our ideal TE so Gronk&#8217s acquisition merely confirms that. As with many positions on the &#8216new&#8217 Broncos, we&#8217re looking for something unlike what we were looking for in the past. And the reasoning behind that new criteria makes sense if one considers it.

The blocker/defender ratio is a fundamental aspect of the success of a play. We can&#8217t ignore this fact when we go to 3-WR sets.

DG probably isn&#8217t the answer to our prayers but he&#8217s more useful as a blocker than Scheffler. There&#8217s a surplus of TEs coming out but finding the right traits still isn&#8217t easy, and their quantity still depresses demand. Detroit picked both Pettigrew at #20 and DG in the 7th, besides signing Heller in the spring. There was never any pretense that they could keep them all. What fans tend to misunderstand is that a weak team can be very, very loaded at certain positions. Having a lot of high draft picks will do that.

Posted by colinski on 2010-10-01 19:44:18

Another great read! Thanks Doc!

I liked this pick up. We had too many CB&#8217s while the Lions had too many TE&#8217s. It was a perfect scenario for a trade and I truly believe it will work out well for both parties.

I can&#8217t wait for the Broncography on D Thomas!

Posted by c_style on 2010-10-01 18:35:52

TE is a position that&#8217s been in flux&#8212many teams have opted for pass catching types who provide mismatches but the position has come full circle, too, as many other teams are looking for proficient blockers who can counter the pass rushing specialists that are currently in vogue. One doesn&#8217t have to look far to find an example of these OLB34/DE43 pass rushing specialists, since we now employ OLB34s who have rushing the passer as one of their primary responsibilities.

Rushing the passer is hardly new&#8212of course&#8212but the techniques for getting to the passer have evolved in complexity, as, for instance, zone blitz schemes have been used to alternate when and where the rush is coming from. And it&#8217s not only the edge where the rush is coming from. The job of interior OLs has changed, too. We saw frequent &#8216overloads&#8217 last year, as teams focused on the weakness in our interior OL in order to breakdown our pass protection from the middle. This is also why having a blocker in the backfield&#8212typically one who can also release as a safety valve&#8212is important, too.

Ideally, we should be able to employ three WRs, and they&#8212hopefully&#8212provide enough targets to make the passing game go. The strength of the McDaniels offense is the pressure it places on defenses to cover multiple WRs, whose byzantine routes make the job of coverage equally complex and thus prone to breakdown. Still, the job of coverage is only hard when there&#8217s a lack of pressure. Many routes take some time to develop, and the QB may not have that time if he&#8217s attending to oncoming pass rushers who force him run for his life or move around before resetting and sighting his target.

The point is that time still counts. QBs still need enough time to find their targets. And it&#8217s hard to find this time if they&#8217re attending to various pass rushers who are coming (or not coming) at various intervals and from various locations. Someone on the offense has to help counteract the defense&#8217s strategy of making life very difficult for the QB. Gaining an extra receiver means losing one blocker, and it shifts the assignment burden for some positions, such as TE, besides changing the ideal somatotype for those positions.

TE is a well-populated position in college right now but numbers don&#8217t tell the whole story. There are a great number of pass-catching TEs coming out who don&#8217t possess the attributes and skill set that we&#8217re looking for. I think we&#8217ve been looking to draft a TE in the last two drafts (and we did) but it&#8217s not as easy to find the prototype that we&#8217re looking for as it might seem. Moreover, despite the relative surplus of TEs which decreases their value, blocking TEs have been in demand, which many of the so-called draft experts seem to have overlooked.

What&#8217s often missed is the fact that things had come full circle. I could conclude with a trite comment admonishing people not undervalue blocking-TEs but I don&#8217t know if it&#8217s that simple. FBs haven&#8217t regained their popularity so it&#8217s not just about being able to block. Being able to block is part of the attraction to blocking-TEs but they function in schemes that are far removed from three yards and a cloud of dust. Intelligence and versatility are important, too, since they need to recognize complex pass rushing sets and react appropriately. And they can&#8217t be one-trick ponies who serve no purpose when the rush doesn&#8217t come. And their use as a blocker often comes into action on the line of scrimmage, where they block edge rushers as well as serving as secondary targets, besides their use in the run game. The transformation of the NFL into a pass-first league has changed the needs of the offense, and in some ways it&#8217s placed greater importance of the remaining blockers. They not only have to provide protection in a greater range of situations but also provide a range of attributes that compensates for the relatively fewer number of players that teams can carry at their position. Blocking-TEs aren&#8217t just blockers, they need to be able to catch. They may not catch the ball as often or as well as their pass catching kinfolk, the pass catching TE, but they need to contribute when called upon. Fantasy football fans may not be pleased with their production but FFFs don&#8217t care about who actually makes the play successful. And by the same token, many analysts measure TEs based solely (or almost) on catches alone. The idea that there are far more blockers on each play than ball-handlers seems to have escaped their notice.

Posted by colinski on 2010-09-30 22:28:11

Yes, DT would be great!

Posted by asinsoin on 2010-09-30 20:48:49

Fantastic as always Doc. I would love to see a Broncography on DT. The kid is going to be a big part of this team moving forward

Posted by Sadaraine on 2010-09-30 19:55:16

Thanks SO MUCH for this breakdown, Doc. I have to admit, I was feeling a little down on him because it seemed like KO went to him in a couple of tight situations where we really needed a first down and he couldn&#8217t hang on to the ball. The details you&#8217ve provided make me a lot more comfortable with him as a player, and I&#8217m glad we have him. And if you&#8217re right, it shouldn&#8217t be long before he&#8217s moving those sticks for us on a regular basis!

I&#8217ve loved reading about DT&#8217s background as well, but I&#8217m sure your treatment of him would yield a load of things we haven&#8217t yet considered. LOVE the bit about the blocking&#8212heckuva teaser!

Good on ya, Bear!

Posted by broncosmontana on 2010-09-30 11:17:02

This is my first time on this site and ive enjoyed my time here, i found this site from MHR which is a great site and im sure ill like it here. Broncography on DT would b great. GO BRONCOS

Posted by bailey4prez on 2010-09-30 04:52:39

Nice job as always Doc. Sounds like this guy has really good upside. My hope is he will be a 50/50 threat to defenses, where in time, when he lines up at the LOS, they won&#8217t have a clue what is coming.

We may need him sooner rather than later, especially if Richard Quinn disappoints or there should be any more injuries.

Posted by Horsepower on 2010-09-30 03:58:22

By the way, one of my first &#8216finds&#8217 on DT is that in college, one aspect of running the triple option is that he really learned to block, hits hard and enjoys finishing his blocks. That&#8217s something that you don&#8217t always find, especially in a WR who&#8217s 6&#82173&#8221 and 230 lb. I love doing the research part, as most of you know. I&#8217m working on that part even as we speak!

Posted by Doc Bear on 2010-09-30 00:34:03

Doc, terrific! I would be thrilled about more on DT. Say what you will about BMarsh & Cutler but I will take more guys like Gronkowski on the team anyday. I think there is a sense of pride that comes with rooting for a particular team; for some it is all quantified by wins & losses but I don&#8217t think it&#8217s always that simplistic. I enjoy the qualitative aspect of being a fan just as much. I don&#8217t love the team more or less based on last week&#8217s performance, however I DO like this team more than past years teams based on knowing things like the above. Keep up the great work.

Posted by RalphW on 2010-09-29 20:21:04

I would love to see one on DT!!

Posted by SobchakBronco on 2010-09-29 20:13:13

Thanks Doc!

I really like what I&#8217ve seen of him so far because he is very physical and finishes his blocks. I think they&#8217ll find a few plays that give him a chance to catch the ball too. Maybe he&#8217d be a great surprise near the goal line if he initially blocks and then releases underneath to catch the ball to the surprise of the defense. I love the series Broncography! Keep feeding us the inside scoop.

Posted by Ponderosa on 2010-09-29 19:58:32

Two of his brothers are in the NFL and this guy has power to spare and in three weeks, he&#8217s mastered the TE playbook and learned the FB slot as well. That&#8217s hard work, and it also speaks to his intellect as well as his work ethic. I like this guy!

Say, anyone want a Broncography on Demaryius Thomas?

Posted by Doc Bear on 2010-09-29 19:42:44

Awesome research Doc, thanks for the time and effort. I didn&#8217t know much about this guy until now, let&#8217s hope it is indeed a beautiful friendship.